About 470,000 children suffer from epilepsy nationwide. Junior Brandon Kopp of Marlboro aims to comfort them, inspire courage and spread awareness with his new book, “Krazy for Keto”.
At three years old, Kopp was diagnosed with epilepsy known as Doose Syndrome: a seizure disorder characterized by loss of muscle control and quick, uncontrollable disturbances in the brain. Since traditional treatments did not help his condition, he was admitted to the hospital and administered the Ketogenic Diet.
He began at four years old. The diet therapy consists of a high-fat, adequate-protein and low-carbohydrate balance to treat seizures. Since then, he’s been its biggest advocate.
“My last seizure was shortly after [starting the diet], so my epilepsy was completely controlled in less than a year,” Kopp said.
Kopp wants to use his story to motivate other children to heal themselves through nutrition and spread awareness to the miracles of the Ketogenic Diet. He hopes to provide emotional support for kids suffering from the same condition.
“The Ketogenic Diet isn’t widely known by the medical community, let alone the general public, so it’s easy for the young children on it to feel like they don’t belong,” Kopp said.“There’s no other content about the diet geared towards children, so I wanted to make something they could relate to.”
Going on a diet can feel alienating, and Kopp hopes that this book will help children feel less alone on their journey for better health. Despite having a clear motive for his book, Kopp struggled to find a publisher.
“At first we tried to use a publishing company, but it was a complicated process and we gave up on them. After that we went the self publishing route. This was a much simpler process,” Kopp said.
While Kopp does not have plans to write another book, he continues to be a champion for Keto.
“I definitely will continue to do everything I can to give back to the community who helped me and spread awareness about the Ketogenic Diet,” Kopp said.
